March 31, 2018

Spotlight: Sears Grand - Rancho Cucamonga, CA




Grand no more.. 
Sears Grand 8250 Day Creek Blvd, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739

Today we are spotlighting our first post of 2018 and a continuation of our California series of stores. This time we are going on a tour of the Sears Grand store in the Foothills Crossing shopping center located in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Opening on Oct 30, 2004 prior to the Kmart merger, this store is 180,000 square feet and was the first Sears Grand in California and the fourth overall Sears Grand pilot store to open. At the time when it opened it featured all the hallmarks of the Sears Grand concept including books and magazines, baby supplies and toys, plant nursery, card and party supplies, healthy and beauty products, CDs and DVDs, cleaning supplies, and pantry (food) items. The store also featured the following services- auto center, sit down cafe, one hour photo, custom window blinds, key cutting, portrait studio, optical shop, and shopping carts that have a kid-friendly racecar theme with cup holders for mom and dad. The store carried hundreds of familiar brands including Lands' End, Craftsman, Kenmore, Cuisinart, Nike, Whirlpool, NordicTrack, CoverGirl and Huggies. You can ready the official press release for the store opening here.


Directory from when the store opened, half of the departments no longer exist today.

Fast forward to the present day and unfortunately this Sears Grand store and all the Sears Grand stores left no longer feature the things that made it Grand. Most all of the departments and services mentioned above no longer exist at this and all Sears Grand stores. The store also has shaved down it's operating hours since it opened, formerly the hours were 8am-10pm and now the store hours are 10am-9pm. Below you can see some of the former department signs still up but those items are nowhere to be found.

Former pet supplies department
 
Former pantry food department

Former health and beauty department

Former cleaning supplies department

Former toy department
Doing our visit to this store back in July 2017, we went in the afternoon and the store was almost completely void of customers, which wasn't a good sign for the future of this store. It's a nice location in a large, busy shopping area that is highly visible from Interstate 15. Being only 14 years old, the store is still in good physical condition beside needing a exterior coat of paint. The reviews for this store online unfortunately like most Sears locations aren't very good, mainly because of slow or bad service. Enjoy the rest of the photos from this store below and be sure to leave a comment on what you think!


Auto center, still open for business

Merchandise pickup drive in area

Parking lot almost devoid of customers




Outside seating area for the former cafe/bakery the store had


Former garden center/plant nursery

Former garden center/plant nursery

Because of the large spanish speaking population in the area, there are some signs in spanish

Looking towards the former pantry area

Former pet supplies department

Entrance to merchandise pickup area





All price check station have the original store directory






Former electronics/multimedia department


More of the former electronics department



This used to be the appliances department, it has since moved to the front of the store



Entrance to the auto center below the Diehard sign




All of those grey squares used to have brand name logos of merchandise carried on them


Entrance to the former plant nursery

All of the green squares used to the brand name logos on them of merchandise carried on them





This used to be the home department, it no longer exists and is now appliances

There used to be more registers on the other end but they have since been removed

Former portrait studio and one hour photo area



These registers have been removed and the counters just remain

The customer service desk used to be behind that curtain



Originally the former cafe/bakery and now a former dentist area







Former bedding and bath department which has be relocated